Magdalena Andersson (S) and Ulf Kristersson (M) disagree about a lot, but they have one thing in common: the demands for ministerial positions from parties they would rather not have in government.
The question is the most difficult for the S-leader because her background is so divided on the substantive issues – which the Tidö parties are said to be putting a lot of effort into elucidating.
This is, among other things, why Nooshi Dadgostar (V) urges Andersson to get his team together. If it spreads as much in 2026 as in 2022, the opposition will lose the battle for the political agenda, reads the analysis.
The Left Party has put a lot of effort into being included in a possible S-led government. The movement towards becoming a broader, more electable party with ministerial positions as an overarching strategic goal was started under Jonas Sjöstedt (V), but it is under Dadgostar that the party has shown that they are serious.
Partly when they brought down Stefan Löfven, partly when they demanded a guarantee supplement for pensioners to release Andersson as prime minister.
Vote red for Andersson
The message in Agenda is that V can only accept a government they themselves sit in. This means that the party would vote red for Magdalena Andersson if they do not get ministerial posts. Between a bowl and a wall, left-wing parties are signaling that they are prepared to pursue their demand for by-elections.
Objections that it might be difficult to cause such a thing are dismissed with the fact that S, if the government is up to it, will open the door to Rosenbad.
How it turns out with that matter is written in the stars, but something the V leadership possibly underestimates is how their own party would react. A premonition of that was seen in the battle over the party program when the leadership was accused of selling out the party’s socialist vision for power.
The party leadership won that tug-of-war, but reconciling conflicting wills around a party program is something different from being forced to swallow the compromises required by a governing party.
May lose voters
The party also needs to calculate with a loss of voters. It usually goes best for V when S turns to the right and cooperates with bourgeois parties. But if V is part of the government and thus needs to take responsibility for policies that C pushed through, it could cost voter support.
Loss of voters and internal quarrels are thus two possible consequences if the party gets its ministerial posts. The leadership is obviously willing to pay that price, but the question is whether the more radical parts of the party are on board.